Lost but free; a British girl exploring the world.

Tassie road trip part two; the breakdown

In one sense I could be referring to my car breaking down- but it was an extremely stressful situation, so I guess you could be referring to me having a mini breakdown on the side of the ride, in the middle of nowhere…

At this point I have gotten bored of Hobart, and I am ready to move on. I decided to head up the Tasman highway- the great eastern drive; a road which follows the eastern coastline. An hour and a half in, half way to where I’m planning to stop, my acceleration peddle stops working. My foot is literally down to the floor and the speed is decreasing.
As soon as I can I safely pull over. I lifted the bonnet so at least I looked like ‘I know what I’m doing’. Can’t see anything abnormal, except that it felt extremely hot.

Guardian angel (as my Nan called it)
At this point I’m pretty much stuffed. I don’t know exactly where I am, or what to do. Then a woman who had previously driven past me, had turned around to see if I needed help.

Like me she didn’t know enough about cars to help, but rang her husband who was a mechanic. He suggested that with there probably isn’t anything we could do to get it started there and then.

The lady gave me a lift to her house, and gave me somewhere to stay for the night. Even after staying just the night, I felt part of the family. They told me to make myself at home.

They had five wonderful children- all who wanted me to stay longer. One of the girls kept asking ‘how long will T be staying for?’ ‘Heather Trott’ the families pig

Sadly just the night- but I have been told if I need anything whilst I’m in Tasmania, to ring them. I’m always welcome to go back.

This lady- who didn’t know me, was extremely kind. It just goes to show that there are good people out there, who want to help in anyway they can.

Im eternally grateful.

The worst hire car company

At the time- I had rang the company I had hired a car with ‘tassie rentals’/’rent-a-bug’ The service I received was terrible.

I rang the company to, and the guy spoke to me in an extremely patronising and rude tone from the beginning. They refused to help me, not caring that I would be left stranded in the middle of no where. My rental agreement states I’m covered by 24/7 roadside assistance. When I told him this he swore and hung up.

The lady who had stopped and helped me, offered to speak to them. Within 20 seconds they had told her to go F off and hung up.

If you’re going to Tasmania- don’t use this company. The prices are good value but it’s not worth it.

If it was my fault- for example if I’d stupidly reversed into somethings or not filled my petrol up; but it was a mechanical problem, that they had did not care about and are still tying to pin on me- probably to get more money…

A lesson learnt

Although this is a pretty negative experience- definitely not part of my plan. I will definitely be more careful about who I hire a car with next time. If I going to do road trips in the future, I definitely will, I should probably learn a bit more about cars before hand and have a back up plan.

On the bright side- meeting this family has been the highlight of my trip. Their kindness and how they helped me, was above and beyond what you’d expect of someone. ﻿

I guess it’s all part of the adventure. If it hadn’t happened, I would’ve just carried on driving, stopped at a campsite, and gone to bed.
To be continued…